Backers optimistic about West-MEC $75 million bond

by Eddi Trevizo - Oct. 3, 2012 09:19 AMThe Republic | azcentral.com

The Western Maricopa Education Center will ask voters to approve a $75 million bond, which supporters say, would build four campuses across the Valley and expand access to vocational classes to thousands of new students.

It's the second time in seven years that the district, which is known as West-MEC, has asked voters to fund construction of new facilities. In 2005, voters rejected a similar bond proposal.

The Nov. 6 vote comes as school districts across the Valley ask for overrides or bonds that could potentially increase taxes for voters.

About 26,000 students from 40 high schools are enrolled in West-MEC, which became a district in 2002. The district offers career and technical education in such fields as automotive technology, aviation, cosmetology, emergency medical technician and culinary arts.

It partners with 12 other school districts, including Dysart Unified,Agua Fria Union,Pendergast Elementary and Glendale Union. Classes are offered at satellite sites in the West Valley school districts.

If the bond is approved, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay about $4 more annually on property-tax bills. The owner of a home valued at $300,000 would pay about $12 annually, according information on the West-MEC online bond website.

New campuses

If approved, West-MEC plans to use $38.8 million, the bulk of the bond money, to build four career education campuses in Surprise, Buckeye as well as in north and west-central Phoenix.

"The locations are based on the demands of our member districts," said Adriana Parsons, a spokeswoman for West-MEC.

The facilities would bring equipment and career courses that are too expensive for member school districts to provide, Parsons said.

If voters pass the bond, the district would add new career programs. They could include surgical technology, veterinary technology, avionic technology, respiratory health, aerospace engineering, occupational therapy and air-traffic controller courses, according to the district's bond information website.

The new campuses and classes could help serve an additional 3,000 high-school students within the next 10 to 17 years.

The bond money would provide $12.7 million to purchase leased buildings and land, $12.4 million to purchase furniture, equipment and to build infrastructure, $7 million to renovate existing facilities, and $4 million to pay for street improvements near West-MEC facilities.

2005 bond

About 700,000 voters live within the district's boundaries, which stretch from Paradise Valley to Wickenburg and Buckeye.

West-MEC last asked voters for a $25 million bond in 2005, which would have paid for corporate headquarters buildings and training centers. The bond lost by 650 votes, said Parsons.

District officials believe the bond failed because the district was new at the time and career and technical education wasn't a prominent education issue.

"The community didn't understand what we are trying to provide," Parsons said.

Now campaign efforts are under way to explain to voters how the bond money directly benefits students, supporters said.

Yes for West-MEC, a political-action committee supporting the bond, has put up 600 campaign signs and 400 yard signs in voting areas and plans to distribute fliers and mailers in the weeks leading up to Nov. 6, said Jack Erb, a member of the PAC and retired superintendent of the Peoria Unified School District.

West-MEC joins a slew of other districts asking for overrides or bonds that could potentially increase taxes for voters in Phoenix, Glendale, Surprise, Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear and Litchfield Park. The bond is expected to last between 10 and 17 years, Parsons said.

Officials at districts that partner with West-MEC say West-MEC's new facilities would give students access to career programs that are too expensive for them to fund.

The Agua Fria district has more than 6,600 students in Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear and Litchfield Park, and about 4,700 are enrolled in West-MEC sponsored courses, said Nicole Smith, director of career and technical education for the district.

The Dysart district, which has about 26,000 students in Surprise, El Mirage, Glendale, Youngtown and unincorporated Maricopa County, has 3,657 students enrolled in West-MEC vocational courses this semester, officials said.

Buckeye Union district officials don't have a complete list of students enrolled in West-MEC sponsored courses this year, but said during the 2011-12 school year there were 1,522 students enrolled in at least one trade program in the district.

Two districts seek to withdraw from West-MEC

Cartwright Elementary School District and Fowler Elementary School District, both based in Phoenix, have asked voters to approve a withdrawal from West-MEC on Nov. 6.

Before recent law changes, Arizona lawmakers banned joint-technical education districts, such as West-MEC, from funding career and technical-education programs to K-6 students and middle-school students. Elementary-school districts including Cartwright, Fowler and Pendergast argued that taxpayers within their boundaries weren't getting any benefit, because West-MEC couldn't fund their programs.

The ban was lifted in April when the governor signed Senate Bill 1529, the education-budget reconciliation package that allows joint-technical education districts to fund vocational programs for eighth graders for the first time in five years.

The law doesn't provide additional funding for programs for younger students. West-MEC and elementary-school-district officials have said the future of those programs is unclear. Earlier this year, Fowler and Cartwright district governing boards voted to let voters decide whether to withdraw from West-MEC.

Mckenna Farris, 17, cooks during a culinary arts course at Millennium High in Goodyear on Monday. About 26,000 students from 40 high schools are enrolled in West-MEC, which offers career and technical education in such fields as automotive technology, aviation, cosmetology, emergency medical technician and culinary arts.